The Department of Health’s announcement is particularly concerning in that it basically defends gender reassignment for children and teenagers and undermines parents’ rights to refuse such treatment for their children.

Gender reassignment as an aspect of ‘children’s rights’

The Department of Health starts its response by saying that

‘patients have a fundamental legal and ethical right to determine what happens to their bodies. Valid consent to treatment is therefore central to all forms of healthcare.’

Indeed the first half of the announcement focuses exclusively on patients’ consent to and right to medical treatment. This is really a way of justifying gender reassignment for children by reference to a radically individualistic interpretation of ‘children’s rights’.

It is very important to realise that no other ethical considerations are given any attention by the Department of Health at all. There is no discussion as to the medical validity of gender reassignment for children and adolescents, or the psychological factors and risks involved. There is no reference at all to the reality that many people subsequently regret undergoing gender reassignment.